Admissions office contact etiquette

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

chemlyfe

New Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2011
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Howdy all,

Congrats to all the accepted applicants! :) However, like many others, I'm still anxiously waiting to hear back from schools. So far, I've just been stalking my email and the various school-specific sites (OPUS, etc.). I've noticed that a lot of people have mentioned calling or emailing admissions offices and receiving their admission decision information that way.

Does anyone with more in-depth knowledge of or experience with how the admissions process works know if this affects offers? For example, if someone proactively contacts an admissions office about the status of their application, does it affect processing time? How far in advance of it being posted online do the office staff have access to admissions decisions?

Any information is much appreciated. I'm really wanting to hear back so I can help find a replacement for myself at work if necessary, but I also don't want to harass the folks in the admissions offices if it won't speed up (or worse, if it would slow down) my application's processing time.

Members don't see this ad.
 
I may not be an expert, but I'll give you the same advice my father gave me: don't be obnoxious. He is a high-level VP at a national agency, and said that even though it may not directly impact your acceptance (or in the case we were talking about, hiring) contacting the office too many times can be seen as an annoyance and a sign of disorganization. If you have a question, wait a day to think of any subsequent ones you might have so you can ask them altogether as opposed to flooding an inbox with individual ones. Whether or not this will impact your acceptance, I doubt it, but I always take the side of caution.

In this case though, I doubt it'll hurt. I know there are certain schools that ask you to put any people you may have been in touch with from the school on your application. At Brown, I called to ask a couple of questions of the program coordinator and she made a point to take down all of my information. I think some schools like to see that proactive involvement.

In your case, I know certain schools (UC-Denver, specifically) will let you know your status a bit earlier if you send them a letter with your circumstance. It may not be much earlier, but a few weeks can make the difference. I would call and ask the schools when they expect decisions to be rendered, and in the same conversation ask if they have a similar stance on non-traditional students as UC-Denvers.

I hope this helps. I apologize if its just noise! Good luck!
 
OP,

There are different ways to get in touch with admissions committee certainly with different reasons. So, it really depends on why you need to get in touch with the adcom.

In case that you want to make sure that the admissions office received all your materials, you need to be a bit more aggressive about having all your materials in. Most of the programs have an email for applicants to contact, but the number of emails they receive near the deadline is so high to the point that they can't keep up with replies on time. You should send an email concisely asking whether all your materials have been in and what items are still missing. One of the etiquettes I know from my experience of working in the real world is that the standard waiting period for your email reply is one week including 5 weekdays and 2 weekend days. If you don't hear from the office about your application status within the next seven days since the date of your first email, I'd send them another friendly reminder, stating that you sent an email on MM/DD and you're still waiting to hear from the office. I would include your old email below your email so that the office would see your reason for the second email. I say that you need to stay nice while thinking aggressively here because they are YOUR materials that YOU had spent time and efforts finalizing for submission. If you miss something, and the office makes the mistake of getting in touch with you too late, that's too bad for you. Who knows what happened in the admissions office?

Another way to do this is the phone. If you don't mind waiting, you will eventually reach someone to check the status of your application. Then, your questions will be simply solved on the spot. Some programs prefer that you follow up with the office by sending an email than calling the office. Finding out what they prefer also helps. If no indication, I'd call right away. Instead of leaving a voice message, I'd hand up and send them an email. In this way, your question is left in writing as a record.

As for getting in touch with the office regarding their final decision, I would be on the safe side of not bothering to get in touch with them. Once you confirm with the office that they have all the materials and that your file is soon to be under review, there is not much you can control. Just wait till you hear from the school. Making a repeated call or sending an email regarding your admissions status will be probably seen as an act of immaturity. If you do, you are walking thin from that point. If you think that you sent your applications early enough to those programs with the practice of rolling admissions and that it has been more than two months since your file was completed, you'd be safe to call to check when your file would be reviewed. I would not necessarily call the office and directly ask, "Would you tell me if I got in?"

If you were to inquire about other questions on the program, besides checking your application and decision status, I agree with the previous replier that you ask all the questions all in the same email or call. I would do so only after reading through their websites because asking questions that could have been easily answered just by their websites could be regarded as a lack of research or interest in the particular program you were applying. By doing all the homework ahead, you can show them the level of your organization skills and interest in the program. Or, at least, you're not leaving them with a negative impression.

Just my two cents,
Drink Water
 
Last edited:
Top